A Familiar Beginning
by unknownnobody
Summary: History has a habit of repeating itself. It's not always the exact same thing each time around though.
1. Introduction: Part 1

This is probably one of the worst ideas I've had so far. It's reckless, and dangerous enough that if I screw up, I'll suffer extreme bodily harm or even die. I don't usually do things like this, since I prefer all my internal organs in the condition they're in right now: undamaged and not splattered all over the place. However, this is my only chance at getting out of here, so I don't have any choice but to go forward with it. I took a deep breath to calm myself, checked the straps on my pack, and then leapt off the roof.

* * *

I've probably started my story a little too far ahead. Let me rewind a bit. My name is Jaune Arc. At least, that's what I've been told. The truth is, I can't really remember my past, because of my amnesia.

The earliest point of my life that I can recall is waking up on this huge throne in the middle of a white room. I remember slowly gaining consciousness as if I just woke up from a deep sleep. I opened my eyes and looked around. There were these strange symbols on the walls, but other than the symbols and the throne, the room was empty. I didn't really think much about it, because I had more pressing questions. Namely, what was I doing here and more importantly, who was I? There must have been some sort of alarm that went off, because not long after I asked myself these questions, some old guy and a man rushed into the room, followed by a woman who calmly walked in. I later learned that the old guy was called Master Verum. The man who came in with him, who introduced himself as Nocte, told me this. He also told me that the woman's name was Cinder, since she didn't introduce herself as Nocte did.

My memory comes up blank whenever I try to remember anything before my arrival here in the Land of Departure. I've asked Master Verum about it, and he told me that at some point in the past I experienced something traumatic enough to cause my amnesia. He didn't tell me the specific details though. He probably knows what happened, but doesn't want to tell me, for some reason. He refused to talk further about the subject, so I stopped asking. Master Verum doesn't tell me a lot anyway, so that didn't put me off a lot. Not knowing anything about where I come from kind of sucks though.

Recently, I've been living in this old castle that Master Verum owns. It's got a library, a huge kitchen, and everything else a castle is supposed to have. I haven't explored it much since the time I got lost trying to find my way to the kitchen. My sense of direction is abysmal, as Nocte told me when he found me sitting against a wall in one of the hallways. I didn't feel like going through a repeat of that experience, so I held off on explorations of the castle.

* * *

That's changed now. Due to recent events, I've decided that I need to get out of here. I need to find Nocte and Cinder, but more importantly, I need to find out what happened to me in the past. I'll never achieve these goals by remaining here. I have to escape.


	2. Introduction: Part 2

The first few years here weren't that bad. My daily routine consisted of basic sword training with Nocte in the morning, followed shortly by magic lessons with Cinder. I enjoyed training with Nocte. He explained in detail the forms of different styles used in fighting with a sword, demonstrated them for me, and then helped me practice until I could get them right. The sparring sessions were a different story. Nocte has a tendency to take any sort of fight quite seriously, which I learned very quickly. With his quick reflexes and swift powerful strikes, it was difficult for me to even land one blow on him. To be fair, he's got years of experience and I'm just a beginner. Eventually I became skilled enough to keep up with Nocte for a few minutes. That's the amount of time it takes for me to get too exhausted to effectively block or evade any of his attacks. I'm sure he holds back a lot though. I've seen one of his spars with Cinder and the only thing I can say is that I do not want to be caught in between those two in a fight. One strange thing I noticed in that spar was that Nocte and Cinder were wielding these weird looking swords. When I asked Nocte about it, he told me the swords were called "keyblades", and that he would get in trouble if he told me anything else. I guess that's another thing I'll never know more about, since nobody other than Nocte seems to tell me anything.

Lessons with Cinder weren't as fun. Her efforts to teach me involved only telling me the name of the spell I was supposed to learn for the day and a brief description of what it did. It was up to me to attempt casting it. The situation was not helped by the fact that my control was really bad. Once, when I asked for a little more help, she told me that helping me would make me dependent on her, and that if I couldn't do it on my own, then I should just stop trying. I tried to get help from Nocte, but he told me that he wasn't good enough at magic to teach me. Cinder seemed kind of cold and detached when dealing with me. Nocte told me later that he and Cinder were getting ready for their Mark of Mastery exam that was coming up. I guess she was just busy preparing for the exam and didn't want to waste too much time trying to teach me. I didn't hold it against her anyway. I'm not one for holding grudges.

In the afternoon, I would go to the library to read up on different topics. It was a little interesting to learn about the history and culture of many places in the world. It wasn't as if I had anything better to do, anyway. Master Verum doesn't let me leave the castle grounds. I asked why, but all he told me that it was for my own safety. He seems to have a lot of things that he doesn't tell me, and it gets on my nerves sometimes.

* * *

I think everything started to go wrong after the Mark of Mastery exam. I don't know what actually happened in it, since I wasn't allowed to watch. All I do know is that both of them passed. However, immediately after the exam Cinder seemed to be very angry about something. Nocte was unusually quiet as well. A few days later, Cinder announced that she was leaving the Land of Departure to seek out her own path in life. I was shocked at the announcement. One of the few people I knew here was leaving, possibly forever. All I could manage then was a short "goodbye". Nocte still wouldn't say anything, and Master Verum just wished her the best of luck. I haven't seen her since.

A couple of years after Cinder's departure, Nocte left to investigate something weird going on in a place he said was called Vale. It's been six months since he left and there hasn't been any word from him. Master Verum told not to worry and impressed the importance of me remaining in the castle. Waiting around is not something I'm fond of doing, hence my decision to try and leave.

My first attempt to leave went rather poorly. I had packed some supplies for the journey, along with my trusty sword for protection. The sword was one of the only things that was found with me when I first came to the Land of Departure. It's something that has a connection to my past, so it's one of my most prized possessions. The sheath that it was in is pretty important too, though it's kind of heavy. Justified, when I found out that it could turn into a shield. Very handy to have, but I haven't practiced with it much. I prefer to dodge attacks rather than block with a shield. I still brought it along, since I still needed it to carry my sword. Anyway, there I was at the front door. I had left a note for him explaining where I was going, and was all set to leave. I opened the door, took one step outside, and was smacked in the face by a huge glowing orb. Turns out Master Verum has some sort of security spell guarding the grounds that seems to also be a deterrent against me leaving. He showed up about ten seconds later and scolded me for trying to leave. I ended up having to scrub the floors of the hallways as punishment. All of the hallways. Needless to say, I was extremely exhausted after that.

I realized that if I was going to escape, it was going to have to be in some way that Master Verum would never see coming. I went looking around the castle looking for anything that would help. Fortunately, I didn't get lost again. Even more fortunate was the storage closet I found on the fifth floor. There was tons of stuff in there, and it was really dusty. I looked through the various things in there: rusted helmets, ropes, sheets, an inflatable raft, and much more. The search was going poorly until I came across something interesting: a parachute. It wasn't a typical parachute either; it had a bunch of additional stuff on it that I only recognized from a book I had read once in the library. This led to the crazy idea that, thinking back on it, was actually less likely to succeed and more likely to kill me. Still, I was slowly going insane from the anxiety and frustration of being stuck in the castle, and it seemed like my only chance, so I took it. On a night when I was sure that Master Verum was sound asleep, I jammed his bedroom door and put a chair under the doorknob for good measure. I managed to do this without waking him up somehow. Then, I went up to the roof of one of the towers of the castle with all my stuff. It was the highest point of the castle, and I thought it was the best place to launch myself from. I took a deep breath to calm myself, checked the straps on my pack, and leapt off the roof.

This leads me to my current situation: me plunging towards the ground at an incredibly swift rate. Without any delay, I pulled the handle to deploy the chute. Nothing happened. Turns out there was a reason the parachute was in that storage closet: it wasn't working properly. Master Verum probably had put it there intending to dispose of it at some point but forgot to actually do it. What this meant was that I was falling to my certain death. All I could do at this point was let out a long continuous scream as I plunged towards the ground. Right before impact, I closed my eyes so that I wouldn't have to witness my own grisly demise.

"_**Thoom."**_


	3. A Rough Start

Was I dead? Am I in the afterlife? I slowly opened my eyes to get a look at my surroundings. Some sort of transparent yet shiny force field surrounded me. On the ground where I would have landed was a sizable crater. And Master Verum was standing a few feet away with an irritated expression on his face. All I could say at this point was,

"Hi?"

"Jaune, what do you think you're doing? Did you even think this through, or were you just being an idiot? You could have been killed!"

That was kind of hurtful, but he did have a point.

"I'm sorry, Master Verum. I just wanted to get out of here to go look for Nocte and Cinder."

I said this trying to look as sorry as I possibly could. It wasn't hard, seeing as I was actually sorry. I did nearly die after all, and only survived because Master Verum was there to save me. Speaking of which, didn't I jam his bedroom door?

"If you're wondering how I got here so fast, you can stop it right now. The security spell you tripped when you opened the door to the roof woke me up. I knocked down my bedroom door and ran over here to make sure you didn't die from the fall. Speaking of which, you're fixing that door tomorrow."

Master Verum leveled a stern glare at me. All I could do was nod and then hang my head in shame.

"Let's go back inside now."

"**This is pretty amusing. How about you two stay outside for a bit?"**

We both turned our heads in the direction of the new voice. A figure stood at the edge of the clearing. I couldn't see his face, due to the fact that he was wearing a black cloak with the hood up.

Upon seeing the guy, Master Verum narrowed his eyes. He extended his left hand and to my surprise, a weird looking sword like the ones Nocte and Cinder had sparred with once appeared in it. It had a boxy guard and a grey shaft, looking very much like an oversized key. What had Nocte called it? Oh right, a keyblade. Master Verum went into some sort of defensive stance, sparing a moment to tell me something.

"Jaune, go back inside the castle. Now."

"**No Jaune, stay. I wouldn't want you to miss out on all the fun. Here, let me give you something to do while I deal with this chump."**

The black-cloaked guy casually flung out his hand.

Seriously, what is up with that guy? Does he need cough drops or something? His voice sounds a little off. Never mind that, I have to get back inside the castle. I turned towards the front door, only to be greeted with the sight of these strange-looking bear-like creatures coming out of nowhere. They had these weird white bone-like masks on their faces and glowing red eyes.

There were four of them. They looked pretty angry. And hungry too. I would have run back into the castle by now, except for the fact that they were between the doors and where I was currently standing. With only my sword, I don't think I'm getting past these guys.

I glanced back at where Master Verum was to see him engaged in a battle with the black-cloaked guy. A whole variety of spells were flying everywhere: Thundagas, Blizzagas, Firagas, and a whole bunch of other spells that I don't feel like getting hit with. That means I'm on my own for the moment.

I turned back to the bear-like creatures only for one of them to take a swipe at me. I managed to throw myself back in time, only receiving a minor scratch on the breastplate I was wearing. Pulling out my sword, I watched them for a bit, waiting for one to strike. Soon enough, one of them broke from the group and charged at me. I sidestepped, ducked under its claws, and quickly stabbed it in the throat, pulling back before it could attempt another strike. The creature stumbled around a bit before falling to the ground, and disintegrating into dust-like particles. As I watched this happen, I noticed the other three creatures move closer together. Looks like I won't be able to use that strategy again.

A loud cry interrupted my battle. I turned around to see what it was. I wish I hadn't. What I saw filled me with absolute horror. Master Verum was on his knees in front of the black-cloaked guy, with these dark spikes impaled through his chest. Without thinking, I rushed towards the two, letting out a shout.

"MASTER VERUM!"

"Jaune…Get out of here…don't let him get you…"

That was all he could say before falling on his side. An indescribable fury rose in me, unlike anything I had ever felt before. I ran at the black-cloaked guy, sword in hand and ready to make him pay.

"DIE!"

The black-cloaked figure simply looked up to see me bearing down on him with my sword. Unfortunately for me, I was too furious to realize that this guy had managed to take down Master Verum without much effort. So, when I reached him he casually smacked me to the ground with one hand, and followed it with a kick to my chest. That knocked the breath out of me, and I was unable to react fast enough before he grabbed me by the collar and hoisted me off the ground.

"**Hm. You don't seem very strong. You didn't even finish with the little friends I gave you to play with."**

I was still filled with rage at this point, and replied with one short sentence.

"I'm going to make you pay for this."

The guy only laughed, before flinging out his hand behind me.

"**Yeah right. You aren't strong or skilled enough to do that yet. How about I send you on a little trip so you can get stronger? Maybe then you'd give me a good fight."**

He proceeded to throw me through the air. I caught a glimpse of what looked like a black portal hanging in the air before going through it. I fell into a sea of darkness and lost consciousness.


	4. The Awakening

It feels peaceful here: no noise, no danger, no-Wait, where am I?

I opened my eyes to get a look at my surroundings.

Complete darkness. Absolutely nothing in front of me.

I twisted my head around to see if there was anything here. Still nothing but an inky blackness all around.

What is going on? Last thing I remember was getting thrown through a black portal after that black-cloaked guy…

Oh, right. How could I forget?

I clenched my fists at the memory. I let Master Verum get killed. It's my fault he was there in the first place. If I hadn't been so occupied with getting out of the castle, we wouldn't even have been outside. Why didn't I think it through carefully? I was being stupid. My brooding was interrupted by the impact of my feet hitting something solid. I somehow managed to stay on my feet. It was still too dark to see anything. Unsure of what to do, I took a tentative step forward.

A bright light suddenly lit up the area, blinding me for a moment. When my vision cleared, I saw that I was standing on a huge ornate stained-glass circular platform. I wasn't really interested in what it looked like, so I didn't pay much attention to the images on the platform. I walked over to the edge of it and looked down. The sight of an empty void greeted me.

"_**So much to do, so little time."**_

The sudden statement startled me, and I whipped my head around looking for the source of the voice.

There was nobody in sight.

"_**Take your time. Don't be afraid. The door is still shut."**_

Great, a disembodied voice giving confusing advice. My day just got a lot better, didn't it? Not having anything better to do, I decided to wait for the voice to continue.

"_**Power sleeps within you. If you give it form, it will give you strength."**_

Upon declaring this, three pedestals rose up from the platform, each with some kind of object on it.

"_**Choose well."**_

Okay, that's it. Either I'm asleep or vividly hallucinating. This can't be real, right? Disembodied voices and strange pedestals don't just pop out of nowhere.

Hoping this dream would end soon, I went over to the pedestal that had a sword on it. Upon picking it up, the voice spoke again.

"_**The power of the warrior. Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction. Is this the power you seek?"**_

I thought about it for a moment. Being a warrior sounds great and all, but that last part about "terrible destruction" doesn't sound like my kind of thing. I gently placed the sword back on the pedestal.

Letting out a sigh, I walked over to the pedestal with a strange-looking shield on it. Upon picking it up, the voice spoke up.

"_**The power of the guardian. Kindness to aid friends. A shield to repel all. Is this the power you seek?"**_

Thinking about it, a memory came to mind.

I've seen these objects before! Well, in a book that I read in the library. I was really bored, and had grabbed a random book off the shelf. Pictures of these objects were on the first page, and the book described them as symbols representing attributes. The sword is offense, the shield is defense, and the rod is magic. Which means that the choice here would be determine what attributes are dominant in a fighting style. I wish I had read the rest of the book though. It might have had something relevant to my current situation.

After a moment of careful consideration, I decided to choose the shield. It seemed like the safe choice to make. Defense is a pretty vital part of not getting killed by enemy attacks. Also, the shield had a funny looking logo on the front that I liked. Holding it above my head, I felt a sudden urge to do something silly.

DUH-NUH-NUH-NUH! SHIELD GET!

No, I didn't actually say this. The voice probably would have been annoyed at that. Instead, I just stated, "I choose the shield." The shield suddenly disappeared in a flash of light, and the voice spoke up.

"_**Your path is set. Now what will you give up in exchange?"**_

Looking at the two remaining items, I decided on the sword. It looked cool, but I didn't feel like having "terrible destruction" hanging with me in my time here. I already break enough things on my own. I walked over to the sword, grabbed it, and held it over my head.

"_**The power of the warrior. Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction. You give up this power?"**_

"Yes," I replied. With that, the sword disappeared in a flash of light. The voice spoke again.

"_**You've chosen the power of the guardian. You've given up the power of the warrior. Is this the path you choose?"**_

Not seeing anything wrong with it, I replied with a yes. Immediately after, a low rumbling filled the air. Looking around, I noticed that the pedestals were sinking back into the platform, as well as-

"Wait, what's going on? Why's the ground falling apart! If this is a joke it's not funny!"

I broke off in a mad dash, before remembering that there was nowhere to run to. Before I could say open my mouth to let out some very colorful language, the platform finished breaking apart. And I fell.

* * *

I ended up landing on another stained-glass platform. And no, I didn't let out a high-pitched scream as I was falling. Really.

Anyway, this platform was empty. Right on cue, the voice spoke up again.

"_**You've gained the power to fight. Use this power to protect yourself and others."**_

While I was wondering what the heck it was talking about (and cursing it for not warning me earlier), something suddenly appeared in one of my hands. After recovering from the shock of witnessing spontaneous object materialization, I picked the object up off the ground and took a look at it. It seemed to be some sort of strangely shaped sword. Gold guard, with a silver shaft and what looked like the teeth of a key at the end. It looked a lot like the swords Master Verum, Nocte, and Crimson were swinging around.

"Is this a keyblade?" I wondered. I gave it a swing to get a feel for it. Pretty light, and appears to be usable in combat.

"_**There will be times where you have to fight. Keep your light burning strong."**_

Wait, what? I glanced around to see what it was talking about. All I saw was nothing but empty glass platform. Hold on, there seems to be movement over there. As if on cue, something popped out of the ground. Actually, several things. They looked similar to the bear-like things I faced before, except these had yellow eyes instead, and these weird antennae on their head. They don't seem very danger-

"_whoosh"_

Scratch that. They have claws, which are sharp and hurt. A lot. This dream is quickly turning into a nightmare. Well, time to utilize my awesome hack-and-slash skills.

With a loud cry, I swung the keyblade down at one of the shadows, slicing it in half like it was made of paper. Its remains disintegrated into black dust.

Wow, this weapon's pretty effective against these guys. What's it made of?

The other shadows backed up a little, before all leaping at the same time towards me. I rolled under their pounces to avoid the potential dog-pile and stabbed another of the creatures in the back. Like its late friend, the thing fell apart into black dust. The other creatures seemed to lose interest in me, and went off in the opposite direction.

Feeling exhilarated from my successful retaliation, I went into a victory pose. "Hah! Look who's laughing now!"

Apparently I spoke too soon, because out of nowhere some sort of dark substance spread over the ground under my feet. I suddenly sank up to my knees, and continued to sink.

"Ah! Okay, I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Don't drown me!"

Despite my pleas, I continued to sink. With no other options, I had no choice but to wait for the inevitable. Eventually I sank deep enough for the black stuff to cover my face. Everything went black.

* * *

When I came to, I realized that I was on another platform. To my surprise, there was a door over on the far end. I rushed over to it, only to discover that the door somehow was intangible. What's the point of a door you can't even touch? Is someone mocking me?

A noise coming from the other end of the platform caught my attention, and I turned to witness a chest materialize out of nowhere. Thinking there might be something important in it, I walked over to the chest and opened it.

Nothing but air. I guess someone is messing with me. The chest disappeared, and I spotted a crate appearing on the platform. What kind of cruel joke is this? Seeing a way to vent my frustration, I smashed it with the keyblade. An object rolled out of the broken remains, and I picked it up. It was a small jar, with some sort of green stuff inside of it.

I put the jar inside one of my pockets. It might have some use later. I turned around to notice a barrel a few feet away from me. Thinking there might be something in it as well, I unleashed a powerful strike against it.

It went flying off the platform and fell into the darkness. I may have used too much force. Seeing nothing else to smash, I decided to walk over to the door again. Upon closer examination, I saw that it appeared to be solid, as opposed to its state a few minutes ago. Excited at the prospect of finally getting out of here, I pulled on the handles. The door opened without any trouble, though there was some sort of bright light that made it hard to see through the door. I walked through anyway.

When my sight cleared again, I appeared to be in the room of the castle where I first woke up. The voice suddenly spoke up again.

"_**Hold on. The door won't open just yet. First, tell me more about yourself."**_

So this isn't actually the castle? Figures. Unsure of what to say, I hesitatingly replied, "Uh, okay?"

"_**What's most important to you?"**_

I went to go sit on the chair and think for a moment. All I had really cared about back at the castle was the castle's inhabitants: Master Verum and Nocte. Oh yeah, and Crimson too. Even if she hadn't been the best of teachers, she still made some effort, even if it wasn't much. I still considered her as a friend. Finally, I decided on my answer.

"Friendship."

There was a pause, before the voice spoke up again.

"_**What do you want out of life?"**_

The answer to that one was simple enough.

"I want to find out what happened to me before."

There was another pause, before the voice asked another question.

"_**What are you afraid of?"**_

Is it planning to scare me to death or something? I still felt compelled to tell the truth, for some reason, so I gave an honest answer.

"Being left alone."

It occurred to me that I was having a conversation with a disembodied voice. This might be cause for concern over my mental health. Before I could continue with that train of though, the voice went off into a short speech.

"_**You consider your friends most important. You seek the truth of your forgotten past. You're afraid of loneliness. Your adventure begins at dusk. There will be many dark times, but as long as you keep your light burning strong you will make it through."**_

A flash of light blinded me as soon as the voice finished. What is up with all these flashes of light?

* * *

When I could see again, I realized I was standing on another stained-glass platform. It's starting to get annoying, being dragged from one strange place to another. I'll be glad when this is over.

Hearing a noise behind me, I turned around and was greeted with the sight of the creatures from before. They seem to have brought a lot of friends as well. Tightening my grip on the keyblade, I charged at them. Unfortunately, it seems like the little critters learned from the previous encounter, because they jumped out of the way of my first attack, and spread out in a circle to surround me. Looking around, I realized standing at the center probably wasn't a good idea, so I ran at one of them and leapt over it. Turning back, I swung the keyblade at its back, cleaving it in half. I proceeded to smash my way through the rest of them. They weren't really strong or fast; the only advantage they had was that there were many of theme and I was only one person. Upon taking out the last one, a stained-glass pathway appeared leading away from the platform. Not seeing anywhere else to go, I followed it.

The pathway led to another stained-glass platform. I wasn't really surprised at this point, already somewhat familiar with the pattern things seemed to be following. Impatient and wanting the whole thing to be over with already, I shouted out, "What's next? Another door? More questions? More things to fight? Come on, let's get it over with!"

"_**The closer you get to light, the greater your shadow becomes."**_

A sudden noise alerted me to the presence of what looked like a huge shadow rising out of the ground. After a few moments of shifting and warping, the thing solidified into a humanoid form. Problem was, it was very large and its face seemed to be made out of black tentacles. Did I mention there was a huge hole in its chest as well? I wanted to run away screaming at the top of my lungs, except that the path I took here had vanished. Which meant that I'm stuck with this big ugly monster. Once again, I tightened my grip on the keyblade and charged at its legs. And was promptly smacked aside by a oversized hand. I probably should have been paying closer attention to its movements. Picking myself up off the ground, I immediately dove off to the side to avoid the huge fist that came down at me. I looked up, and noticed the monster's hand had plunged into the platform, seemingly creating a pool of darkness. Creatures like the ones from before appeared from the pool. So this thing could make minions?

While it was busy spawning numerous little critters, I saw a perfect opportunity to deal some significant damage. Running up its arm, I unleashed a series of slashes at the monster's face. Let's see if that fazes it.

Apparently it wasn't enough, because next thing I know, the monster pulls its hand out of the ground and throws me off to the side. Landing heavily, I looked up to see its minions approaching me. I spent a few minutes dealing with them before turning back to the big guy. It had gotten into some sort of stance and was pointing its chest upwards. The thing unexpectedly started generating some sort of energy inside the hole in its chest. Then it fired that energy at me.

I'd like to say that I dodged the attack like a boss, but the truth was that I was hit. Very badly, in fact. Surprised that I was still alive, I attempted to stand up and get back to fighting the monster. Unfortunately, the pain from my injuries left me too weak to do so. The monster began walking slowly towards me, probably with the intent to crush me under its fist. I suddenly remembered the jar I got earlier. Deciding that it wouldn't really matter in a few moments, I pulled it out, opened it, and drank the contents. Whatever that stuff was seemed to do its job, because I felt the pain disappear. I didn't have the time to do a thorough checkup, because the monster had finished its slow stroll over here. I hastily rolled over to avoid the large hand that attempted to squish me. Jumping back to my feet, I repeated the same strategy from before, running up its arm and proceeding to stab the thing in the eye with the keyblade. Leaping off from its face, I noticed that the monster had stopped moving completely, which seemed to indicate that it could no longer fight. I felt exhilarated enough at my apparent victory to yell at it.

"How do you like that, you big ugly brute!"

Apparently I spoke too soon, because it shook its head before leaning over me. I tried to raise the keyblade in defense, but for some reason it vanished from my hands, leaving me defenseless against the rapidly approaching monster. As I was about to be crushed to death by its descending body, the voice spoke up.

"_**Don't be afraid. You hold the mightiest weapon of all. And don't forget: you are the one who will…"**_

Whatever it was about to say next went unheard as the creature fell on me. Everything went black again.


	5. A Chance Encounter

I gradually became aware of the fact that my face was pressed into something hard. Did I fall asleep on the floor or something?

Wait a moment.

Lifting my face off the ground, I checked myself for any wounds. Thankfully, I'm still in one piece and not crushed flat. However, all I have on me right now is my sword and sheath. I must have lost my bag somewhere along the way.

Due to the lack of injury, I'm inclined to believe that the whole thing earlier might have been all a dream.

It was still a pretty intense dream though.

Unfortunately, what had happened to Master Verum before had not been all in my head.

I had screwed up big time, worse than I ever had before. There was nothing I could do now to fix it. The only thing I could do now was to go forward with my original objective, which was to find Nocte and Cinder. The self-deprecation could come afterwards.

Where am I, anyway?

Taking a look at my surroundings, I discovered that I was in a dark alleyway. Walking out to the street, my eyes are greeted with the sight of an unfamiliar street illuminated by bright lampposts placed in regular intervals. The only thing I can recognize is the sight of the moon in the night sky, which reassures me that I haven't ended up on another planet or something.

The lack of recognition isn't unexpected, since I've never actually been outside of the castle. Pretty much everywhere outside would be unfamiliar. Unfortunately for me, that means I can't determine exactly how far away I am from the castle. For all I know, I might not even be in the Land of Departure anymore. I decided to do a thorough examination of this place, to get an idea of what this place is like.

I walked over to one of the buildings. Displayed behind a large window were mannequins dressed in a variety of clothes. Not being interested in getting a new outfit, I walked to the next building.

This time, there were a large number of tables inside. There were a few people sitting at them, talking and eating meals. I felt slightly hungry, but I didn't have any money to purchase food with. I walked on.

* * *

All of the buildings seemed to be shops or restaurants, which seemed to indicate that I was in a town or city. I still had no idea where this place was, or what it was even called. A map would've helped, but I didn't know where I could get one. I decided to try getting up on a roof to get a better view of the area.

Spotting a ladder on the side of one building, I went over to it and started climbing upwards. It was a little more difficult than usual to climb, but that was probably due to the fatigue I was beginning to feel.

Upon reaching the roof, I looked around. The good news is that I am in a city. There's a multitude of buildings stretching out as far as I can see. I think I can even see a dock over in the distance. Now I've got a better idea of the layout of this place. The bad news is, I still have no idea where I am. I really should find a map. I don't know where to get one though. It's also quite late, and I'm really tired, despite just waking up recently. I don't even know where I'm going to sleep tonight.

While I was pondering on the next course of action to take, the sound of breaking glass caught my attention, followed by some sort of sound I couldn't quite identify. I peered over the edge of the roof to look down at the source of the noise.

The first thing I noticed was the girl standing in the middle of the street. I couldn't make out most of her appearance, but I did manage to see that she was wearing a red cloak. It stood out to me for some reason.

The other thing I noticed was the huge scythe she was holding. Really, how could I miss it? The thing was large, looked very sharp, and scared the living daylights out of me. Part of me wondered how she was able to hold it up, seeing as something of that size and material should be quite heavy.

As if to answer my unspoken question, the girl spun the scythe around before burying the tip of the blade into the pavement. I spotted a guy in a bowler hat gesturing to a bunch of guys in black suits wielding swords and what were probably guns. Some of them began rushing at the girl.

What followed was one of the most amazing and terrifying events I've ever witnessed so far in my life (that I can remember).

The girl, seemingly undeterred by the difference in numbers, began her attack by kicking the first guy to reach her right in the face. Next, she spun at an incredible speed before smashing another guy away with her scythe. She then proceeded to take out everyone else in a swift and likely painful manner.

At that point I stopped watching and pulled away from the edge. Clearly that girl is more dangerous than she looks. Getting hit by that scythe would definitely be no joke.

I felt a small measure of relief at being up here, out of sight. Getting into a fight like that would not end well for me. While I sat on the ground trying to decide what to do next, a rather loud whistling noise shot through the air followed by the unmistakable sound of an explosion.  
Looks like someone decided to make things more fun with explosives. I should probably leave the area before a stray shot comes my way. I started walking over to the ladder to climb back down. To my surprise, the bowler-hat guy from the street came up, shoving me to the ground with a short "Out of my way kid!" He proceeded to run past me to the other side of the roof.

Before I could get up, something came flying through the air. It turned out to be the scythe girl. I would've been impressed at her aerodynamic feat, except for the fact that she landed feet-first on my stomach with considerable force. Thankfully she quickly stepped off, letting out what I think was a quick apology before going to confront the bowler-hat guy. I'm not exactly sure, being a little preoccupied with the excruciating pain and inability to breathe for several seconds. The sound of yet another explosion pierced the air, but I didn't focus on it too much, seeing as I was still struggling to get air into my lungs.

When I could finally breathe normally again, I turned my head and noticed a few things. One: bowler-hat guy wasn't on the roof anymore.

Two: a woman with blonde hair and some sort of cape was present on the roof.

Three: there was some sort of tilt-jet hovering close by, and said woman was firing off what looked like spells at the tilt-jet.

Oh, and someone was firing back. Wait a moment. That spell looks familiar…

At that moment, part of the roof exploded. By now I had a fairly good guess of who was in the tilt-jet.

But could it really be her though? Surely it wasn't as easy as that.

I got on my feet before trying to see who was in the tilt-jet.

Sure enough, there was Cinder.

Overjoyed at the chance of finally meeting up with her again, I took a step forward and called out.

"Cinder!"

In my haste, I forgot one very important fact: there was still a raging battle going on. Drawing attention to yourself in the middle of a fight in which you're completely outclassed tends to be a very stupid thing to do.

On one hand, the scythe-girl and the blonde woman finally noticed that I existed. The woman did not seem amused at my presence though. That might be a problem later.

On the other hand, there was Cinder. If she had heard me, she clearly wasn't happy to learn I was here, because I caught this strange look passing over her face. It probably was anger, only on a completely different level from just regular old rage. I've only seen that look once before, and that was right before the spar between her and Nocte. It was a look that promised a fiery and explosive demise. And at the moment, it seemed to be directed at me.

Why did I shout out? The hunger and fatigue must really be getting to me. If I had stayed quiet I could probably have slipped away unnoticed and unharmed. Unfortunately, I hadn't done that, and now it was time to face the consequences.

A distinct high-pitched whistling sound alerted me to an incoming attack. I did the only thing I could do at that moment: throw myself backwards as fast and hard as I could.

And just in time too, because the roof exploded. Again. I think my pants might have gotten a little singed from the blast. There are probably plenty of bruises that I'm going to feel in the morning as well.

I don't have many options to take at the moment. I possess no viable methods of long-range attacks, save for the spells I currently know. However, casting even one spell leaves me quite exhausted. I'm not quite sure why that is; nobody back home could or would explain it. On top of that, my lack of control would leave me unable to aim properly, meaning that I would be more likely to hit myself in the face with a spell before hitting a target. And I would only have one shot. So, using magic is out of the picture.

There's also the matter of the two other potential opponents: the scythe-girl and the blonde woman. Both of them seemed quite capable of beating me senseless. Fighting at all would probably end badly for me.

There's only one option left then: flee. It might seem a little cowardly, but I'd prefer to not to be involved in any more violence right now. Running away to fight another day seems like a good idea. So, I picked myself off the ground and stumbled as fast as I could toward the ladder to the street. I say stumbled because I found it a little difficult to keep my balance or move very fast. Maybe I suffered some sort of injury from the explosion. No time to stop now though.

Hopefully Cinder will keep the other two busy while I make my escape. That is, if she isn't trying to kill me anymore. I didn't get nailed in the back by any attacks as I made my way over to the ladder, which is probably a good sign. I think I heard the tilt-jet flying away, but I can't be absolutely certain. Actually, everything's starting to get a little hazy for some reason.

In fact, I'm feeling really tired. My legs seem to have stopped working properly as well, because the next thing I know, I'm lying on the ground. My arms are non-responsive. No matter how hard I try, I can't move them. My eyes can't stay open either.

You know what? A nap sound good right about now. Maybe everything will resolve itself after my nap.

Unable to continue on, I lost consciousness (yet again).


End file.
